Man accused of defrauding HOA of more than $1 million

A Clark County grand jury indicted a 50-year-old Beverly Hills, Calif., man for his actions in allegedly defrauding the Paradise Spa Home Owners Association in Las Vegas of more than $1 million, Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said Monday.

Massoud Aaron Yashouafar was indicted Friday on three counts of theft of property by false pretenses and three counts of embezzlement, officials said. He’s scheduled to appear Jan. 4 before District Court Judge Carolyn Ellsworth.

Officials allege Yashouafar collected two insurance checks — one for more than $400,000 and another for more than $430,000 — for two fires that occurred Sept. 18, 2009, and Jan. 15, 2010, at Paradise Spa condominiums, where he served as treasurer for the HOA board of directors.

The checks were to be used for building repairs, but Yashouafar allegedly deposited the money in an out-of-state bank account for which he was the sole signator, officials said.

Numerous condo owners, meanwhile, had to find other living arrangements while still making mortgage payments on their damaged, uninhabitable units, officials said. Many of the condo owners in Paradise Spa are senior citizens.

Yashouafar rented units he owned to some of the displaced condo owners, collecting rent while the owners waited for repairs that never happened, officials said.

Yashouafar allegedly wired more than $250,000 from a Paradise Spa operating account in September 2009 to pay for various personal projects, officials said.